Fresh on the heels of the sale of Backyard, a local offers company to Pixelfish, entrepreneur Steve Espinosa has assembled a new team to develop “Appetizer,” a mobile-centric service that enables restaurants to offer instant deals via push notifications.

Using the service, which costs $9.95 per month, restaurants can also add menu items and contact information. And they can customize the app to fit their branding.

The company has raised some initial funds and is now raising $300,000. “By leveraging the information from the Social Graph, we can build out the boring part of app instantly,” notes promotional literature. “The small businesses can then focus on bringing back customers through deals, specials, rewards and events.”